St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Born in Avila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, St. Teresa was the daughter
of a Toledo merchant and his second wife, who died when Teresa was 15,
one of ten children. Shortly after this event, Teresa was entrusted to
the care of the Augustinian nuns. After reading the letters of St. Jerome,
Teresa resolved to enter a religious life. In 1535, she joined the Carmelite
Order. She spent a number of relatively average years in the convent, punctuated
by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for three years, but then
experienced a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ" that changed
her life forever.

From this point forward, Teresa moved into a period of increasingly
ecstatic experiences in which she came to focus more and more sharply on
Christ's passion. With these visions as her impetus, she set herself to
the reformation of her order, beginning with her attempt to master herself
and her adherence to the rule. Gathering a group of supporters, Teresa
endeavored to create a more primitive type of Carmelite. From 1560 until
her death, Teresa struggled to establish and broaden the movement of Discalced
or shoeless Carmelites. During the mid-1560s, she wrote the Way
of Perfection and the Meditations on the Canticle. In 1567,
she met St. John of the Cross, who she enlisted
to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order. Teresa
died in 1582.

St. Teresa left to posterity many new convents, which she continued
founding up to the year of her death. She also left a significant legacy
of writings, which represent important benchmarks in the history of Christian
mysticism. These works include the Way
of Perfection and the Interior Castle. She also left
an autobiography, the Life of Teresa of Avila.

The Catholic Encyclopedia includes alengthy article
on St. Teresa of Avila. Another article
is available from the Teresian Carmel in Austria.

This text copyright 1997, Mark
Browning. Permission is granted for all noncommercial use of this article.